Posted on July - 13 - 2011
Construction Spending Increases 1.4% in March
Construction spending increased 1.4% in March with the housing, nonresidential building and heavy sector all improving. This gain reverses about 20% of the steep drop during the harsh winter weather in December through February. Revised data show a deeper decline during the winter than first reported. The shrinking supply of public construction funds is now being felt on the jobsite. March housing spending was 4% below November but new home construction was nearly steady. Nonresidential building spending also fell 4% from November to March, almost all for institutional buildings. Heavy construction activity dropped 7% over the same period.
Much of the decline since November was a real cutback in public construction, especially buildings financed by municipal governments. This trend will persist well into 2011 as state and local governments are forced to balance their budgets with depressed revenues, exhausted reserves and end of federal stimulus funds on June 30th. The proposed budgets for FY 2011-12 are spending cuts from the current budget year in almost all states.
The Reed Construction Data spending forecast now projects a 2.3% decline in 2011 although spending will be rising steadily before mid-year. The delayed recovery early in 2011 pushes some work into next year raising the gain to 13.7%.
Similar Posts:
- Construction Spending Declines 1.4% in February
- Nonresidential Building Construction Spending Declined 0.5% in May
- Construction Spending Increases 0.7% in October
- Commercial Buildings Lead Construction Starts Rise in May
- RSMeans’ dollars-per-square-foot construction costs: accommodation table and graphs
